How to Build the Ideal Workout Week

As we launch our Balanced Habit Nutrition Fall Kickstart Challenge, we want to help you develop the ideal workout week to support your nutrition goals. Even though nutrition typical makes up at about 70% of weight loss, we want the food that you consume to be used as fuel for your workouts, not just stored in your body.

Having a Plan is Key

Though there is no one size fits all exercise routine, we created a simple high-level framework that should work for most folks. If you are looking to lose weight, we recommend creating a six-day plan with one day of active recovery. First, creating a plan allows for you to structure your week and creates an actual routine that you can follow.

Secondly, by having a plan, you make yourself more accountable to your exercise routine. "If you want results, you need to have a routine that you can stick with," said Noam Tamir, founder of TS Fitness. "I’ve seen so many people try to fit workouts in inconsistently, and it ends up being a waste of time." We always recommend exercising in the morning as it not only boosts your metabolism for the entire day, it also helps remove the barriers that can arise during the day. If your work meetings run late or life just gets in the way, you may miss your opportunity to work out. This can be avoided if you have already hit the gym first thing.

The Ideal Workout Week

“You want a good mix of weight training, steady state cardio, and endurance training,” said Noam. "You also should have at least one day of active recovery, too.”

Strength Training (2-3x a Week)

Aim to do strength training at least twice a week. At TS, we believe in the impact of Metabolic Resistance Training (MRT). Metabolic Resistance Training relies on completing structural and compound exercises, such as deadlifts or overhead presses, with little rest in between exercises to maximize calorie burn and increase metabolic rate during and after the workout. Studies show that MRT workouts, like our Group Personal Training sessions, can burn calories (exercise post oxygen consumption or EPOC) for 38 hours after completing a work out. "Muscle is constantly being broken down, recreated, and synthesized, and all these processes require energy. The more muscle you have, the more energy it takes for this process,” said Noam. Building muscle jacks up your metabolism.

Endurance Building Cardio (2x a Week)

HIIT sessions are great for crushing calories and also developing endurance. HIIT is based on being able to go to maximum intensity followed by a short rest so that you can then repeat that intensity again. Our HIIT classes can burn up to 700 classes for the 50-minute session, an awesome way to start or finish your day. "It also increases your VO2 max, which helps your body utilize oxygen,” said Noam.

Steady State Cardio (1x a Week)

Steady State Cardio refers to keeping your heart rate constant for the duration of your workout. “This type of cardio is great for keeping your circulatory system working optimally helping you to recover faster,” said Noam. Running, taking a spin or rowing class, or swimming are all good examples of a steady state cardio workout.

Active Recovery (1x a Week)

Your body needs to take a rest after a week of working out in order to recover and rebuild. Incorporating an active recovery into your rest day will give your body time to recover but also will keep you moving a bit. For your active recovery, find an activity that you enjoy, like a long walk with your dog or yoga. You don’t need to break a sweat as part of your active recovery, you just need to be active. Recovery days also give you the mental break to avoid training fatigue.

The Ideal Workout at a Glance

We’ve put together a quick sketch of what the Ideal Workout Week looks like. We recommend spending at least 30 to 40 minutes per session working out. If you have any questions or need help developing a routine, feel free to reach out to our team. We are here to help!